HRC Blog

HRC’s Sharon Groves on “What Transgender People Teach Us About God”

Sharon Groves, Director of HRC's Religion and Faith Program, writes about the ways conversations with our transgender brothers and sisters can deepen rather than divide communities of faith in a newly published op-ed for the Washington Post.

The essay - "What transgender people teach us about God, and our humanity" - is a response to an essay published last week by Russell D. Moore, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Groves writes in part:

What would happen if rather than depicting transgender people as “fac[ing] a long road of learning what it means to live as God created them to be, as male or female,” we actually took seriously the question of what it means to be human and, more expansively, what it means to live into our full humanity? What if rather than saying that biology is destiny we actually explored the ways in which we all experience our own gender identities and expressions? What if we learned about the lived experiences of our transgender peers?

The Human Rights Campaign represents a force of more than 1.5 million members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.